Visa is the credit-card network founded in 1958 as BankAmericard that became one of the world's highest-market-capitalization companies.
Bank of America launched BankAmericard in California in 1958. The card program expanded through licensing and international partnerships, eventually becoming a separate organization known as Visa. Visa, Inc. was created in 2007 and began trading publicly in 2008.
Visa does not generally lend money directly to cardholders. Instead, it operates a payment network connecting consumers, merchants, banks, and other financial institutions. Banks issue Visa cards, while merchants' acquiring institutions process transactions through the network.
This business model helps distinguish Visa from banks and from American Express, which combines a payment network with card issuing and merchant relationships. Visa's enormous transaction volume and global reach have helped make it one of the world's most valuable financial companies by market capitalization.